Wings of Fire: Glory of the Stars
by StarglorytheNightWing
Summary: Starglory the NightWing lives alone, far away from everyone else, for her magic powers are unpredictable and dangerous. But when she receives a vision of six dragons, she must seek them out to fulfill a strange prophecy.
1. PART 1- The Scorpion Wastes- Chapter 1

**PART 1- The Scorpion Wastes**

 _Chapter 1_

Starglory blinked and drowsily raised her head. The midday sun warmed the rocks and sand outside her cave, making the walls toasty hot. She didn't know why she was awake; she always slept in the day and was active at night. _Unless..._

A thought tickled at her ears, and then another. Some other dragon was approaching her home. She shuffled her pale wings, wondering who it was. Because of her mixed-tribe blood, her NightWing powers often worked in strange ways; she could detect thought but couldn't understand it or tell whom it was unless she could be very close to that dragon. It was most likely Wolfsbane, as precious few dragons knew the location of her dwelling.

Starglory admired Wolfsbane greatly. She was kind and caring and gentle and understood Starglory so well. Starglory padded towards the entrance of her cave and stuck her snout into the blazing desert heat. She squinted, trying to see through the sudden burst of light and shimmering heat. There was a small black shape in the cloudless sky.

Starglory retreated inside the cave and waited until Wolfsbane click-clacked into the cave. She was a NightWing of lithe, but muscly, shape, and with kind purple eyes. Wolfsbane had a very shapely figure, with well-polished ebony scales and tiny perfect white teeth. Her whole body radiated _you can tell me anything_ and _I understand_ and _I am your friend._

"Hi, Wolfsbane!" said Starglory happily. "I was wondering when you'd come next." Starglory was rather dismayed to find her voice cracked from disuse. She hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks. "Why haven't you been coming as often?"

Wolfsbane smiled rather sadly. "Oh, Starglory, you know why. Your powers are getting stronger, and you are dangerous. You need to work hard at controlling them."

Starglory hated hearing this, being a threat. "But I only lost control once since you last came."

"Once is one too many, Starglory," said Wolfsbane gently. "If I had been here when you lost control of your power, I could have been killed."

Starglory had heard this many, many times before, and hated it. She just shuffled her claws on the sandstone floor, making a nasty grating noise.

"I love you like a daughter, Starglory," murmured Wolfsbane in the sort of voice you talk to a frightened animal with, "I don't want you to get hurt, or hurt anyone else. But you must control your curse. Find a way to conceal it. Hide it away until it goes away. Understand?"

"Uh-huh."

"I couldn't hear you."

"I understand, Wolfsbane."

"Good." Wolfsbane beamed. She swept Starglory into a light hug. "Try to keep the power in, don't let it out. Don't be dangerous."

She parted and took flight. "Wait!" Shouted Starglory. She had been so lonely, and Wolfsbane was the only one who understood or even knew where Starglory was.

But Wolfsbane was gone, swallowed up by the blazing sun and bright blue sky.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Starglory stood outside her cave. The sky looked like a huge sphere of smooth onyx, studded with tiny diamonds and three circles of ivory. The three moons were full, a brightest night. The stars glittered so brightly that Starglory felt a physical ache in her chest, she so longed to fly there. She opened her wings, slits of light wavered to her and seemed to lift her up, up, up. She laughed. The stars themselves were carrying her, to the furthest reaches of the sky.

She slowed and stopped far above the earth. At first, Starglory was confused, for below her was nothing but inky sparkling water. Where had the stars taken her? But then she saw the faint outline of a dragon in the water. But it was so strangely shaped, and it did not move...

Starglory gasped and shut her eyes against a wave of dizziness as she realized that the dragon below was Pyrrhia. The stars had taken her so high that Pyrrhia itself seemed nothing more than a dragonet playing in a puddle of ocean! She stared, openmouthed. Was it even possible?

The stars began to sing. Not real singing, but lights, neon blue-purple-magenta-green-blue sprays of sparkling light that danced and twisted in such a beautiful way it could only be described as song. Starglory spun her wings and twirled in the air, forgetting about Pyrrhia as her mind and wings were enveloped in the light of infinite nebulae.

The swirls of stardust twisted and shimmered into shapes. At first, they were indistinct and watery, but they began to take shapes. Great, billowing clouds of gray, outlined by shimmers of purple stardust, swirled into fantastic shapes. Starglory laughed. It was so beautiful.

A dragon's head and chest took form from the clouds. Instead of being warped and wavy, the image was so sharp and detailed Starglory could see the individual scales. It was lighted from within by deep violet light, with a pulse of bright gold at its heart. Starglory gasped. The pattern of scales- the spacing of the eyes- the curve of the neck- they were _hers._ Could this be her father?

Another shape, wavery and indistinct, took shape. Its light was the hot pale yellow of desert sands, deep golden at its heart. Black diamond shapes ran down its back. Its graceful neck curved to meet the first and they embraced. That was her mother, Starglory knew now.

They swirled away, to be replaced by a new shape- an egg. Purple-black, but two circles of silver appeared, two full moons, and it turned pale gold. A dragonet appeared, deep black and green-eyed, the two doting parents circled around it lovingly. The image faded away. _What was that?_ Starglory wondered. It could have been her own hatching, but that dragonet looked nothing like her. She was a very dark gold, not black, and her eyes were not green.

Another image wafted into view. Starglory leaned forward, eager to see what would happen. A deep black shape shimmered into view...

 _NO..._ A voice pulsed at Starglory's ears. She cried out, the stars seemed to be trembling. _No... you will not see... I will not let you see... You must not know..._

The fuzzy outline of a dragon's head materialized. It grew larger and larger as the details grew sharper and sharper. It was Wolfsbane's face, full of malice.

 _No... You must not... I won't let you... Do not see..._ The apparition of Wolfsbane whispered, green flames spilling from its snarling mouth as its horrible eyes spat with a dreadful acid light. _YOU WILL NOT... Come back... No... I will not let you... You mustn't... Starglory... Starglory... STARGLORY..._

Starglory screamed as the green flaming mouth swallowed her whole. _STARGLORY..._

"Starglory... Starglory!" She was in her cave, and Wolfsbane's face was close to her own.

"Aah!" Starglory yelped and inched away.

"It's all right... You were having a nightmare." Said Wolfsbane soothingly. "A dream... not real."

Starglory shuddered and shut her eyes. Wolfsbane stroked her dark scales gently, but Starglory shied from the touch, ducking under her blanket. When she lifted her head again, Wolfsbane was gone.

Whether it was her own imagination or the last reminant of the dream, as she lay sleepless in bed, she thought she heard the faintest echo in her mind.

 _You must never see..._


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

Starglory sat in the warm sand just inside her cave, watching the waves of heat dance in the sun. A scroll lay unread in front of her. She couldn't stop thinking about her dream. Little tendrils of magic poked around, swirling patterns in the sand and playing with the edges of her scroll.

It was like it wasn't even connected to her at times; a seperate thing, like a spirit. At least it was behaving now; sometimes it would run away, and she would have to force it back before damage was done.

Preoccupied with her dream, Starglory didn't notice that way that the magic was tugging on her mind, pulling on the mental bonds, getting ready to snap them in half, until it was too late.

The powerful whiplash recoiled across her mind, causing her to cry out. The magic was going wild. She desperately tried to reel it in, but it was no use. Wild magic rebounded around her cave and across the sands. Starglory was struck with a sudden mishmash of sensations of flying and twisting. She tried to yank apart the magic feelings from the real ones before they clouded her mind too much. She reached out, trying to catch the magic.

A rock formation fell; the magic had toppled it. Inside her cave, her belongings were flying around, crashing against the walls. Starglory gasped as she felt the magic touch a nearby bird and drain its life force, killing it. She had to make it stop before it met any dragons. Her mind was a tangle of wild magic and fragmented thoughts.

Straining, she threw mental ropes around the magic, pulling it in, yanking. The magic struggled, shaking the cave, but finally loosened its force and submitted like a scolded puppy, stuffed back into the places of her mind where she could keep it under control.

Exhuasted from the struggle, Starglory looked around at the mess. She half-heartedly shoved a few things onto the rocky shelves. Cautiously, she let part of the magic go, ready to fight it if it should tear from her mind again. It seemed peaceful, so she used her magic to pick up, sending things into their shelves, putting the blankets back on her bed.

Starglory pulled the magic back and sat on her bed. She lay down, even though it was the middle of the day she felt like she could sleep for weeks. _Maybe I'll dream again._ If she did, maybe she could learn something else. She shut her eyes, trying to hold the dream in her mind.

She did not dream.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

Starglory whooped as she swirled in the sky. The air was speckled with stars and the moons shone on her wings. She shut her eyes as she shot through one of the few clouds that were spread over the desert. The sands below shone moon-pale. Starglory folded her wings and dived.

 _-a storm- an egg- loss- winding alleys- fear- tunnels- water- light- a stunningly sharp picture of a SandWing dragoness, silhouetted against a sunset, black diamond patterns-_

-Starglory gasped at the sudden rush of images, struggling to keep aloft-

 _-four brown dragons- three of the four, dead- blood splattered everywhere- silver dragons- a gorgeous brown dragoness, left alone- while her claws were dipped in blood and her mouth was contorted in a fierce snarl, her eyes were full of pain and sadness-_

-she pulled up just in time to soften her landing on the sand, tears in her eyes-

 _-a ray of sunlight and a ray of moonlight, crossing- where they intersected, a firefly hovered- three dragons, one light as the sun, one dark as the moon, and one glowing like fireflies-_

-she pressed her claws to her head, as though she was trying to tear the visions away-

 _-and a dragonet, pale blue-purple, thin and tiny, her eyes brimming with terror and sorrow-_

-and they were gone.

 ** _These are the ones you need to seek. Find them. Fulfill the prophecy. Find them._**

 _What!? Who are you? What do you mean?_ Starglory shouted in her thoughts. There was no answer. Who or whatever had spoken to her had vanished. _Okay, okay... 'these are the ones you need to seek...' The dragons I saw, I need to find them!_ She began to list the dragons she had seen. _That SandWing... that brown dragon... those three dragons... and that dragonet._ Starglory shivered at those haunted, clouded eyes. She had never seen that dragonet before, but she felt like she would tear apart what or whoever caused such suffering.

 _I have to find them._

She got unsteadily to her feet and took off, staying close to the ground in case the visions struck again.

She landed in front of her cave's entrance and snorted a burst of flame, illuminating the dark insides. She grouped around for a candle and set it alight, holding up the wavering flame. Sitting at the rock at served as a table, Starglory set down the candle and grabbed a few scraps of parchment. She had just begun drawing when she realized she had no ink. She fumbled for the inkwell and hurriedly began to sketch.

Alone in the desert, Starglory had little to do but draw, and draw she did. Her art, while clumsy, could have won any number of art contests elsewhere.

The SandWing dragoness' face emerged from the ink quickly. In drawing, Starglory became aware of details she hadn't seen at first, like the large hoop earring in the dragoness' left ear, the tattered crest, and the many, many brown freckles. Starglory drew as she saw her, framed in motion by the sunset.

Starglory finished the sketch without difficultly, then moved on to the brown dragon, then the three paired dragons. Then the dragonet.

Starglory shivered as the haunted form of the dragonet appeared on the paper. Giant, sunken, scared, clouded eyes, a tiny scar across the snout, a tattered frill at the ears, fragile skin and bones. Starglory stared at the page. "I'm coming for you," she whispered, even though she knew it was stupid. "I'm going to save you."

Starglory grabbed a shoulderbag, stuffed it with her blanket and food. A canteen of water went as well, followed by her favorite scroll, The Case of the Stolen Diamond. She stroked the pages lovingly. She walked to the entrance, looking at the stars.

Just as she started to turn to get the drawings, a voice echoed in the cave-

" _Going somewhere?_ "


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

Starglory whirled around. Standing easily by the stone table was Wolfsbane, the flickering candlelight rippling through her scales. In her white, sharp talons she held the drawings.

"Give me those!" Starglory ran for the drawings. Wolfsbane pulled the drawings out of reach, waving them mockingly. "Leaving so soon?" she hissed, her green eyes glittering like hard gems.

"Yeah!" Starglory jumped, snatching at Wolfsbane's talon, but she pushed her away. Starglory gripped the floor with her claws, raking grooves in the sandstone.

"On second thought..." Wolfsbane's manner changed rapidly, her hard eyes melting into the warm emerald pools Starglory knew. "You're old enough to make your own desicions now, I suppose. You can leave if you want." She shrugged. "Go ahead. I won't stop you." She settled herself on the sandy floor, long tail coiled.

"Is it these papers that you want? You can have them. I won't even read them." Starglory stood numbly as the drawings, one by one, fluttered gently to the floor at her talons. She picked them up, looked at them, as though unsure they were real.

"Oh, and Starglory... Remember your curse. Dragons will die because of it." She shrugged her thin shoulders. "But it's your choice." Wolfsbane gently blew out the candle, leaving them in pitch blackness.

By the time Starglory found and lit the candle, Wolfsbane had vanished into the night.

"Rrrgh!" Starglory slammed her talons onto the sand. "I won't lose control again! No one will die!" She ran outside and roared to the sky. "I WON'T! YOU'LL SEE!"

She grabbed the drawings and ran into the night, winging blindly into the air. Her eyes were blurred with tears.

 _I won't hurt anyone... I won't. I'll be careful... I can't... No one will die... NO ONE WILL DIE! I WON'T!_

She screamed into the night sky around her.

"I _WON'T_!"


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

Starglory squinted. From her high altitude, she could barely see the bright rays of sun peeking over the horizon. It was an odd feeling, know that it was sunrise up _here_ and still night down _there._

The brightly shining sunbeams were beginning to hurt her eyes, and it became hard to see. She looked down and saw a thick carpet of clouds. Had she flown straight out of the desert? No, not in one night. She aimed for a gap in the clouds and dived. She shivered as the chilly moisture of the clouds hit her scales.

Under the clouds, it was still dark as night. It looked like a storm was brewing, flashes of lightning illuminating the clouds with blinding bolts. The sooner she got on the ground, the better. A tingle of electricity wiggled under her scales.

Starglory tossed her head from side to side, searching for a place to wait for the storm to pass. A bolt of lightning illuminated something below- a city in the desert.

Not wanting to try her luck in the air any further, Starglory folded her wings and dived straight down, aiming near the city gates. She landed clumsily on a fat sand dune, sliding a little before getting her bearings and running towards the gate.

Two SandWings were standing by the entrance, huddling in their wings. One carried a long, scary-looking spear.

"Halt!" called out one, brandishing the spear as she tried to sneak past. "No one gets in without-"

"Knock it off," scowled the second one. "She's harmless." He bent his head to look her in the face. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

Starglory's thoughts raced. She should give a fake name... _Think! Fake names, fake names..._ "Um, I'm... Obsidian. You can call me Obby." she added hopefully.

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the one with the spear. "You can come in, see the sights, whatever." He pushed the gate open. "Hurry up, before I change my mind."

Starglory hurried up. Inside the walled city, the wind was not as bad, and in fact no one really seemed to notice the storm. Dragons were bustling around, poison tails winding around corners, black eyes winking from every alley. Nobody noticed her, which was more than odd. A young dragonet with no obvious tribe, dark gold scales, weird pale eyes, and starry wings should stand out like a NightWing in a crowd of RainWings. But no one was looking at her. Weird.

Starglory stood, hemmed against a wall by the seething crowd, for a good while before she summoned the courage to start showing other dragons the pictures and ask if they had seen the dragons in them. She started with the owners of the various market stalls set up around the city.

A weasly skinny dragon with black tattoos said no. A dragon with a banadged wing said no. A plumb dragoness draped with exotic fabrics and silks said no, but gave Starglory a small bag of roasted crickets for asking so nicely. A very scary looking tattoo artist said no.

So did everyone else.

Starglory was sure that she had asked every dragon in the city by the time the storm broke and the hot sun began to shine. She squinted up at the sky, grateful for the warmth the sun shed on her scales. She opened her starry wings, shaking the sand from them.

The weight of a thousand mountains crashed down on her head.

Starglory half-fell against a nearby building as someone -or something- spoke in her head.

 ** _The one you seek is here._**

Then came a rush of images, pouring into her eyes. She saw from her own perspective, running through the crooked alley to her left, then right, past a stall selling potted palm trees, then right, then left, then left, right again, then climbing over a roof, over a fence, into an abandoned area. Then a brief flash of a small house with a palm tree weathervane and a hole in the roof.

 ** _She is within._**

And it was gone again.

The pressure on her head lifted, and she could see again. She rapidly got to her feet in case anyone had noticed her, but as before, it was as if is she was invisible. Not knowing what else to do, she began to walk where the vision had told her. Through the alley, right, past the palm tree stall, right, left, left, right. She clambered over the roof, sending a few terracotta tiles crashing down. The roof was scorching hot from the sun, and Starglory had to stop and cool her talons in the cool shade. Then she went on.

She flapped over the fence, narrowly avoided having her belly scraped, and landed clumsily on the other side. It was a narrow alley, obviously not used for a long time. A thick layer of dust coated the bricks. This wasn't in the vision. Starglory nervously padded forward, her claws clicking on the stone.


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

A large fence blocked the way. Starglory half-jumped, half-flew over it and landed clumsily in the sand.

It was an eerie place, totally silent compared to the clamor of the busy streets. It was fenced in by a circular wall, with no visible entrances, other than by flight or by the alleyway she had entered through. Sand sifted around the circle, blown by the oscillating winds trapped in the walls. Small, ruined sandstone huts were set around the circle, all pointing towards the center, where a tall statue, once grand, now ruined by age and neglect, stood proudly. It was a dragon of some sort, but the heavy damage prevented Starglory from seeing the details.

The statue perched on a wide pedestal that was obviously once a decorated fountain, but it was now dry and half-filled with sand. The elaborate dragon head faucets still held faint water stains.

It was a haven, totally still and quiet in the loud city. Still, Starglory couldn't help but feeling like she had disturbed some ancient place, a place where she shouldn't be. She turned in a slow circle, admiring the strange grandeur of the place. Then she saw it; the little sandstone house with the caved-in roof and the weathervane.

 ** _Do not shirk your duties. It would be cowardly to turn back now._**

 _What duties? Tell me something straight or shut up!_ Starglory hissed in her thoughts at the voice, wincing at the sudden headache.

The voice was silent.

Starglory stepped carefully into the house, ducking a fallen beam. The house was clogged with rubble from the fallen roof, slanting rays of sunlight making the dust sparkle in the air. She carefully skirted the piles of rocks, wary of causing a cave-in. She looked in all the rooms she could access, but there was no sign of life.

 ** _Look again in the back room. Behind the empty barrels._**

Starglory scowled at the voice but did what it said, shoving the empty wooden containers out of the way. Sure enough, there was a deep crack in the floor, leading down to darkness unknown. Starglory gulped.

 ** _Have courage. Many things await you in the abyss, some of them frightening, but all of them harmless._**

 _Oh, shut up!_ Starglory snarled. She gathered her courage and dropped into the darkness.

For a long, horrible moment, her stomach dropped and she seemed to be falling into nothing. She tried to unfurl her wings, but the passage was small, just barely wide enough for her.

With a muffled _thump_ , Starglory crumpled onto sandy earth. She cautiously spread out her wings. Fully opened, they just scraped the cave on either side. A faint sliver of light drifted down from above her, illuminating a small pool of light. Beyond that was pure darkness. The drop was too small to fly up. There was only one place to go: forward.

Starglory gulped and began to stumble into the darkness, spreading her wings in front of her so she didn't crash into anything. The darkness seemed endless, and the small pool of light quickly vanished behind her.

A small, quick flash of light passed across her face. _An exit?_ Starglory began to pick up her pace. Another flash, and another. She suddenly ran into a bright cave, several dragonlengths wide and tall enough that she could barely scrape her wingtips against the ceiling.

But what was most astonishing was the light. Cracks in the ceiling sent shimmering rays of light, criss-crossing the cave, making puddles of sparkling dust where they touched the floor. Hung from the ceiling were delicate, intricate hangings, shards of colored glass tied to bits of string, dangling from sticks. They were placed so that the light touched them, sending beautiful, shimmering dots of colored light everywhere, like a stained-glass window.

The place was piled with rugs and carpets, tapestries depicting epic battles and great deeds hung on the walls, all bright and beautiful.

A sharp point touched Starglory's throat as her wings were pinned from behind.


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8_

"I see you like my pretty decorations?" purred a voice smooth as honey behind her. Starglory was frozen. _Hello, weird mysterious voice in my head? This would be a good time for some advice..._

No helpful voices made themselves heard.

The pressure on Starglory's neck released suddenly, and she caught a glimpse of a spiky tail snaking away.

"So do you like them? Hmm?" Starglory turned around to see a SandWing dragoness, several years older than her.

"Um- uh- yes, yes, they're very nice," stammered Starglory.

"Why, thank you," hissed the dragoness. "What's your name, little friend?"

"Obsidian," Starglory said.

"That's not your real name," sniffed the SandWing. "But I don't really care. I'm Jerboa." She reached out her talon.

Dubiously, Starglory shook it, feeling several fat rings.

As Jerboa moved into the light, Starglory gasped. The large gold hoop earring, the black diamond patterns, the tattered crest- Jerboa was the SandWing in her vision!

"What?" scoffed Jerboa, looking annoyed.

"It's just- I- Um- I've been looking for a dragoness that looks just like you," said Starglory. She handed Jerboa the picture.

Jerboa squinted at it and held it up to the light. "Yeah, that's me," she said after squinting at it for a while. "Who gave you this? Why are you looking for me?"

Starglory didn't know what to say. After a very long, very awkward pause, Starglory quavered, "I-I can't tell you. It's a s-secret."

Jerboa squinted at her for a moment, and Starglory was afraid she would persue the question, but Jerboa shrugged and said, "That's fine. So, now that you've found me, what are you going to do with me?"

Starglory brushed her tail in the sand nervously. The truth was, she had no idea what to do beyond finding the dragons from her vision. So she decided to tell the truth- or, that is, part of it.

"There are dragons I need to find. I don't know where they are or who they are, but I need to find them. I have these pictures," explained Starglory, handing Jerboa the rest of the drawings. Jerboa's dark blue eyes scanned the papers quickly, lingering on the dragonet.

"I've never seen them before in my life," said Jerboa slowly. "Except for _this_ one." She waved the brown dragon's picture in the air.

"Really? Where? When?" Starglory almost jumped into the air with excitement. She had already found one of the dragons, and was on the brink of finding another!

"Calm down, yikes," Jerboa snickered, though not rudely. "So, like a few months, maybe a year ago, this crazy MudWing came rampaging through here. She caused a ton of trouble, like attacking dragons and stuff. I don't think she hurt anyone bad, just scratches and stuff, but she still made enough commotion for the royal guard to be called out here and drag her away. I guessed they took her to the queen's prison. She was raving about finding this dragon called... Like, Katie, or Kimmy, or something with a 'K'."

"Anything else? Did anything happen after that?" Starglory was almost hoping the dragon Jerboa had described wasn't the one she had to find. She didn't sound like a dragon Starglory wanted to confront.

Jerboa paused to think. "Well... There were these wanted posters up around the city for a while. They said she had escaped from the prison, reward, reward, extremely dangerous, reward, all of that." Jerboa waved her talons in the air. "I think they caught her again, because they took down the posters in a few weeks and put up a notice that she had been caught."

"Could... Could you help me find them?" asked Starglory shyly. "I mean... I think I'm supposed to bring all of these dragons together somehow. If you could tag along..." She trailed off awkwardly.

Jerboa brightened. "Why not? It's not like I'm going to be missing much around here. I'd say our first stop should be the prison, to find that crazy MudWing."

Starglory beamed. She couldn't believe Jerboa had agreed to help her so readily.

"Then let's go!" she exclaimed happily. "But I think you should lead the way... I'm not sure where the exit is."

 _Hear that, weird voice?_ Starglory thought happily. _I'm on my way!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9_

Jerboa pulled aside a tapestry depicting a very intimidating scorpion to reveal a tunnel. It was better lit than the one Starglory had come through, small cracks in the ceiling letting in dusty beams of light. Starglory followed Jerboa's twitching, poisonous tail somewhat nervously.

The tunnel slanted upward and became a narrow shaft. It was blocked by drifts of sand. Before Starglory could say a word, Jerboa had burrowed into the sand and was gone, swallowed by sand. She stood uncertainly in front of the drifts, unsure whether to follow.

"C'mon, it's fine," came the voice of Jerboa, muffled deeply by the sand. "Just start digging."

Starglory nervously began to push at the sand, but Jerboa's talon came and pulled her into the sand. Starglory stopped herself from crying out just in time, lest she swallow a mouthful of sand. That Jerboa was strong! For a long, horrible minute, Starglory couldn't breath or see.

Just when she thought her lungs would explode, her head popped into the light. She coughed, spitting out sand. Jerboa was standing by her, laughing.

"What's so funny?" snapped Starglory crossly. Still giggling, Jerboa helped Starglory tug her wings loose. Starglory shook herself thoroughly, picking sand out of her dark gold scales. Showers of golden sand fell from her starry wings.

Gathering as much dignity as possible, Starglory asked, "Where is the queen's prison?"

"At the queen's palace, of course," Jerboa snorted. "Have you been living under a rock or something?"

Drawing up her wings carefully, Starglory admitted, "Yes, actually."

This brought on a whole new cascade of laughter.

They took off from the circle, winging up quickly towards the sky. The sun was shining very brightly, sending the remaining stormclouds scuttling for the shelter of the distant mountains. Starglory spread her wings out wide, letting the sun warm them.

Jerboa suddenly moved closer to Starglory and squinted at her wings.

"What?" asked Starglory, annoyed.

"It's just... Those patterns on your wings..." Jerboa said slowly.

"What about them?"

Jerboa scrunched up her face in thought. "Well... When I was really little, smaller than you, I remember a big black dragon coming here..."

"Yeah?"

"And his wings looked just like yours, like with that curling star pattern."

"Anything else about him?" asked Starglory eagerly.

"Nope." Jerboa shrugged. "I just remember those big, starry black wings..."

Starglory bit her tongue and thought in silence. It could be a coincidence, or Jerboa could have made a mistake.

They flew on, Jerboa leading the way to the palace.


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter 10_

Just when Starglory thought her wings would fall off, Jerboa suddenly exclaimed, "There!" Starglory squinted, trying to see, for the sun was rapidly setting and shadows were being cast by the dunes. She saw it, a big, dark square brick sitting in the desert.

"We should find a place to spend the night before we try to find that dragon," said Jerboa. "They probably won't let us in after dark. We can probably find an inn or something in the courtyard. Sure enough, a small village was in the courtyard, with buildings and dragons walking around.

Starglory began to dive for the courtyard but Jerboa smacked her with a wing. "You go in through the gate. It's polite."She winged her way down and landed in front of the gate. Starglory followed.

Two burly guards were stationed on either side of the gate. They didn't try to stop the two as they walked through the gates.

"This way," said Jerboa quietly, steering Starglory with her tail. A long, low building of dark brick spanned one end of the courtyard. The other dragons seemed to be steering clear of it. A padlocked door with a guard in armor, armed with a long spear, seemed to be the only entrance or exit.

Starglory walked slowly up to the guard and shyly asked, "Um- I'd like to visit someone-"

"No." snapped the guard. He began to recite in a dry voice. "No dragonets under the age of seven may enter the prison without being accompanied by a parent or guardian over seven-"

" _I'm_ her guardian." interrupted Jerboa.

The guard squinted at Jerboa. "You're over seven, then?"

"Yup," answered Jerboa. "I had my hatching-day last month."

The guard grunted. "Happy belated, then," he said sarcastically as he opened the door. "Oh, and I'm supposed to stay out here at night. So if you, say, accidentally release every single dragon in that place, I won't be around to save your sorry-" He said a very dirty word.

"Oh, I think we can take care of our own sorry-" Jerboa repeated the word. Starglory barely muffled her giggles.

A long hallway leading to another door was inside. Once the outer door had boomed shut, Jerboa said to Starglory, very seriously, "You _can_ take care of your own sorry-" The word again! "Right?"

Starglory burst out laughing. "I'm pretty sure I can..." she said through snorts. "Are you really seven?"

"No," said Jerboa with a look of smug pride. "I'm six. But my hatching-day really was last month, so I was telling _part_ of the truth. Fig always said I was-" She stopped, suddenly quiet.

"Who's Fig? What did he say?" Starglory pestered, but Jerboa turned away and was silent.

Starglory awkwardly pushed the door open. Jerboa sat down on the floor. "I don't think I'll go in... I'll wait for you here." said Jerboa, very faintly and somewhat snuffly.

"Jerboa..." whispered Starglory. Grief was coming off her in great waves, clear as day and twice as bright.

"I said go! Go find your crazy dragon..." Jerboa buried her head in her wings.

 ** _Go on and seek the brown dragon. Your friend needs to be alone. She fears anyone seeing her as weak._**

 _Not you,_ groaned Starglory, rubbing her head. _Have you got inside Jerboa's head too?_

What she wanted to do was stay and comfort Jerboa, but had the weird voice ever lead her wrong. Not yet, anyway... With a lats glance at Jerboa, Starglory stepped into the prison.


	11. Part 2 Into the Dark - Chapter 11

((I'm finally back and writing this again! I don't know if anyone is still watching, but if you are, thank you for being patient and I hope you are happy with the rest!))

The inner prison was dark and hot. Frightening thoughts oozed through the sandstone walls. Starglory did not like it one bit. Wolfsbane had once told her that true telepaths could block out others' thoughts, but Starglory had never really wished she could until then.

As she went, Starglory wondered how exactly she would find this dragon. She knew what the dragon looked like, but inspecting every inmate she found didn't seem like a good idea. She wasn't sure of what this dragon thought like, so she couldn't search the minds of dragons. Besides, that sounded even worse than just looking at them. Maybe she could find a friendly guard and ask him? That sounded less than likely. She would probably be thrown out right away.

Speaking of which, why hadn't she seen any guards? It felt like there should be more. She wondered what she would do if she met one. Could she fight one? She pictured herself summoning her powers and unleashing them on-

No, no, no. That was just too horrible to think about.

A door came into sight on her left. A barred window on the door let her see through into a long corridor lined with cages. She flinched as something suddenly moved within a cage, nothing but a dark form in the dim light. Like a snake or beetle, scuttling along in a corner. She considered just walking away, but she couldn't. The dragon she was looking for might be in there.

"Voice?" she whispered. "Voice, what do I do?"

There was no response.

The door wasn't locked, which was a good sign. That probably meant the cages were secure. Or maybe it meant there was a guard in there. But no one had called out when she looked through the window. Still, Starglory prepared herself to run as she opened the door.

Inside it was stiflingly hot and very dark. Metal cage bars gleamed wetly in the blackness, trapping the dark forms of dragons behind them. Starglory shivered.

"Hello?" she quavered, taking a step forward. Sticky sand clumped beneath her feet and she dug in her claws.

"I-I need to f-find a MudWing," she said in the most confident voice she could muster. It trembled like a frightened mouse. "She c-came here a few months ago and h-has a scar? On her-r horn?"

Silence. Little rustles and scratches, maybe from a rat in a corner. But mostly silence.

She took a step forward and raised her voice a little, trying to sound important.

"Please, I have to!"

No, that was begging. That wasn't what she was going for either.

She waited. Amused eyes glittered at her, scornful feelings oozing through her scales. They all were laughing at her in their heads.

Maybe the dragon wasn't here. Maybe this was the wrong place. There were lots of cell blocks in the prison.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I'll go now." She turned away slowly, whisking her tail through the sand.

A claw grabbed her tail.

Before she could scream or do anything, it yanked her up against cold iron bars, held fast by whoever was in the cage. Something pressed into her scales; a ring on a talon of the fist. The metal burned like a brand on her scales; it was red hot. Gasping, she tried to scrambled away, raking lines in the sand. She could feel the eyes of the other inmates on her, shining silently in the dark. Snickers, too, eager for a fight, perhaps.

The claws wrapped around her throat and Starglory screamed.


End file.
